England captain Stuart Broad slams Hobart's short boundaries

Stuart Broad was less than impressed by the small boundaries at Blundstone Arena for the first Twenty20 international between England and Australia, but they will be at least a little harder to clear in the next two games.

After watching some of their best work disappear into the ground's construction site on Wednesday night, bowlers are set to find the MCG and ANZ Stadium a little more friendly square of the wicket.

''For grown men, 52 yards is not a big hit, is it,'' said Broad, the English captain.

''It was maybe a little bit weighted in the batsmen's favour. We've seen a lot of entertainment and I think the MCG might be slightly bigger, touch wood.''

There were 22 sixes thumped on Wednesday night, two short of the international Twenty20 record. So eager were players to capitalise on the short boundary in front of the construction site, they took the unusual move of taking guard on or even outside off stump, exposing their stumps so they could bring the shorter hit into play. The official word was that the shortest boundary was 56 metres, rather than 52 yards. But several players have little difficulty striking the ball twice that far.

Former Australian captain Mark Taylor said during the Channel Nine telecast he had rarely seen such a strategy from batsmen in international cricket.

Advertisement

Batsmen, however, will find it more difficult to clear the rope at the MCG and ANZ Stadium, which have boundaries of 70 and 68 metres respectively, marginally longer than the longest boundary at Blundstone Arena on Wednesday night, which was 65 metres.

Instead, they may target the straight boundaries. In Melbourne it will be 65 metres and even shorter at Sydney's ANZ Stadium, which has its straight boundary 61 metres from the striker's end.